Car Composites on Fast Track

In a move that clearly signifies increasing use of composites in car manufacturing, General Motors has signed a pact with Teijin to co-develop carbon-fiber technologies for potential high-volume use in mainstream GM cars and trucks. The technologies aim at reducing vehicle weight for better fuel economy.

Teijin, a Japanese producer of carbon fibers and composites, has invented a compression molding process that speeds the production of carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) and makes it more efficient for mass production. The two companies' co-development efforts will be based on this process, which has cycle times of less than one minute, within the window for tact time required by automakers for mass-produced vehicles. This short time period also enables rapid production of prototypes and performance evaluation tests. The process won the Frost & Sullivan 2011 Global Automotive Carbon Composites Technology Innovation Award, and the ICIS Best Product Innovation award, as well as being the overall winner of the ICIS Innovation Awards 2011.

Teijin's mass production compression molding process solves one of the two main problems of applying carbon-fiber composites to highly automated, high-volume automotive manufacturing. This is the long, five-minute molding times required by the thermosetting resins used in traditional CFRPs. Instead, Teijin's process uses the company's proprietary carbon-fiber composite material based on thermoplastic resins. The other main problem has been the high cost of these materials, but to some extent, this has been a consequence of their low volumes.

To support the effort, early next year Teijin will establish a technical center, the Teijin Composites Application Center, at an undisclosed location in the northern part of the US.

"Our relationship with Teijin provides the opportunity to revolutionize the way carbon fiber is used in the automotive industry," says Steve Girsky, GM's vice chairman, in a press release. "This technology holds the potential to be an industry game changer and demonstrates GM’s long-standing commitment to innovation."

This appears to be a significant commitment on GM's part to advance the use of carbon-fiber composites in their product development and manufacturing processes. At some point, it would seem logical that the other automotive giants will do the same. Perhaps then, it's the tipping point?

Ann, do you happen to know if this an exclusive partnership with Tejin or is that company able to forge similar partnerships with other auto makers?

Beth, Teijin didn't want to divulge any more details. However, reading between the lines, the fact that the company opened a separate pilot plant in Japan, mentioned in the last paragraph, not related to the GM deal, makes me think the GM pact is more of a co-development relationship and non-exclusive, although there's been no mention of either exclusivity or non-exclusivity. Other statements in press releases and on Teijin's site sound like they want to make their material in high volumes for the auto industry as a whole.

Got it. It would makes sense over time for auto makers like GM to make investments or go beyond non-exclusive partnerships at some point as the use of carbon-fiber becomes more prevalent in automobiles. Better economies, I would think.

TJ, I couldn't agree more. The potential volumes achievable from automotive manufacturing should help catapult carbon fiber composites into the mainstream for several industries, with potential applications in aerospace, military and naval vehicles and aircraft.

Please don't comment on this subject regarding aircraft and autos in the same breath. What works for cars at ground level doesn't always work for multi-passenger aircraft at 30,000 feet and above! Although thermoplastic vs themoset has advantages, the fibres being built into the matrix are the strength carriers....thermoplastics will become brittle at low temperatures and high altitudes, both circumstances that simply don't exist in the automobile use.Besides aircraft users are looking at 25 years minimum lifespan and a lot of pressurizing and depressurizing takes place over that period of time.

Chuck, I agree, I just noted in a different article's thread that It seems everyone I'm talking to lately, whether composite makers, adhesive makers, coatings suppliers or even machine vision hardware vendors, are mentioning this as the driving force behind the trends impacting their products. And I think this time the automakers really mean it.

There is an increasing demand that vehicles are designed with end-of-life recycling as a main driver. Europe is aiming at 95% recovery (by weight) by 2015. I am not a plastics expert so how does the carbon composite fit in here? Is it a recyclable material?

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